What do a goat herd and DISH Network have in common?

Justin Preziosi, a field service manager for Dish, displays Smart Home Services products in his van. (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post)

Dish Network has offered in-home services beyond installing a satellite TV dish in the past couple of years. That’s probably a key reason the Douglas County company on Monday was a hand-picked launch partner for Amazon Home Services, a new one-stop online shop to hire a local handy person to help around the house (here’s Amazon’s press release).

This vetted group of professional contractors have been background checked, carry their own insurance and were personally invited by Amazon. There’s also a customer satisfaction guarantee: Amazon will intervene until the job is done right or it’ll provide a refund.

Hire a Goat Grazer from Amazon Home Services

Aside from Dish’s Smart Home Services, Amazon is also providing the ability to hire goat grazers to manage weeds, professional A cappella singers for events or a car coaxial speaker installer. Unfortunately for us Coloradans, none of these services are yet available in Denver.

I’m waiting to hear back from Amazon as to exactly where one in the U.S. can hire a goat grazer via the new service. Why hire goats? To take care of “any unwanted vegetation,” says Amazon, which also adds, “As they graze, they will likely leave behind some droppings, too, and you’ll get to keep this fertilizer as a friendly parting gift!”

But if you need someone to hang a TV or set up a wireless network, Dish appears to be the preeminent Amazon provider. It’s the first choice for services here in Denver. Other locals offering services via Amazon include SpeedWise IT Services in Northglenn, Next Step Communications in Mead and The MacSpa in Denver. None of the last three have been reviewed by Amazon customers, but since Dish had previously teamed with Amazon to offer its in-home service, the company has a whopping 405 reviews with an average rating of 4.7 out of 5!

In an interview earlier this year, Dish’s executive vice president of operations Erik Carlson told me that the company’s Smart Home Services has become a “multimillion-dollar business.” Last year, Dish technicians completed 1.5 million installations beyond the satellite dish. Read the original story: “Side Dish: Satellite TV’s Dish sees growth in Smart Home Services.”

Tamara Chuang covers personal technology and local tech news for The Denver Post. She previously spent 10 years doing the same thing for The Orange County Register before taking a hiatus to move here and become a SAHM to a precocious toddler.